COUNTY children’s cancer charity the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust held poignant celebrations to celebrate five years of raising cash to save young lives.
Set up in 2016, the trust was founded in memory of four-year-old Grace Kelly who passed away in 2014. To date, Grace’s legacy has raised more than £1.8million.
The vision of the Trust was born from the inspiration Grace imparted on the people she met. Grace was a compassionate and caring little girl, who looked after others before herself. Above all, she wanted to take care of others before herself.
The team at the GKCCT work tirelessly to raise awareness, fund research into rare cancers of childhood and produce educational materials for clinicians, parents and children. They also provide financial, practical and emotional support to families at the time when they need it most.
To date, the charity has dispensed more than 900,000 copies of its awareness cards, delivered more than 33,000 copies of its awareness publications to hospitals and hospices across the UK, given almost £50,000 in grant support to families, delivered 200 covid support packs, funded £270,000 of research, supported 10 children so far with their AV1 robots.
Charity founder and Grace’s mother Dr Jen Kelly said: “The fifth birthday of the Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust is a poignant milestone for the charity to reach because Grace never made it to her own fifth birthday.
“I do believe thought Grace would be so proud of all she has helped to achieve, so we would like this to be a time that the charity can celebrate all that we have achieved so far and all the families that Grace’s legacy has helped to support.
“Thank you so much to everyone that has helped support us in any way. Childhood cancer remains the number one medical cause of death of children in the UK and we are determined to try and change this for the children of the future.”
The GKCCT is marking its anniversary by holding a virtual balloon race. The balloons will set off at midday on Tuesday, June 22 and the race will close at midday exactly one week later.
The balloon which has travelled the furthest virtual distance will be the winner.
Visit www.gkcct.org/gkcct-virtual-balloon-race for more about the race.
